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FreeNAS 8.0 nearing completion

The FreeNAS development team has issued a third release candidate (RC3) for version 8.0 of FreeNAS, a FreeBSD-based Network Attached Storage (NAS), UNIX-like server operating system. FreeNAS includes a full Web configuration graphical user interface (GUI) and supports the FTP, NFS, CIFS (Samba), AFP, rsync and iSCSI protocols and software RAID (0,1,5).

According to the developers, highlights include better Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) and Common Internet File System (CIFS) configurations, as well as reworked and improved iSCSI support. Other changes include the addition of a volume importer, support for 6gbps 3Ware RAID controllers and GUI access via the HTTPS protocol. A number of bugs have also been addressed. Compared to previous versions, FreeNAS 8.0 is more modular and includes a redesigned graphical user interface (GUI), built using Python and the Django web framework, that's aimed at making the OS easier to use.

As with all development releases, use in production environments and on mission critical systems is not advised. Users testing the release are encouraged to provide feedback and report any bugs that they encounter.

Further information about this third release candidate can be found in the official release announcement and in the release notes (direct .txt download). FreeNAS 8.0 RC3 is available to download from SourceForge.net – upgrades from FreeNAS 0.7.x are still unsupported.

The latest stable release is FreeNAS 0.7.2 from mid-October. FreeNAS is released under the BSD licence and development is sponsored by iXsystems.